About

I’m a Leo, so when I left Fairfield, Illinois, in 1965, I was headed for the stage because, of course, that’s what a Leo does, in one form or another. But, as fate would have it, I fell in love with a gifted teacher in 1967, which led, inevitably, to being in love with teaching.

I became a teacher, and have spent the last four decades examining the art and craft of teaching and learning.  And though the teaching life has baffled and confounded me a good part of this time, I know without any doubt that teaching is my calling.

In my twenties, it was a relatively easy shift to use my classroom as an outlet for all that Leo-energy.   Forty-two years later, I’m still in love with teaching, but strive now to stay in the wings and create moments for my students to express themselves.  (That Leo-girl just about wore me out.)  For the last twenty-two years I’ve taught creative writing and nonfiction literature at Rollins College in Winter Park, Florida.

Another calling is my practice of ashtanga yoga, a metaphysical methodology for developing clarity in how we see and know ourselves.  I am a certified yoga teacher, trained under the guidelines of the Hard and the Soft Yoga Institute, directed by Beryl Bender Birch.  I practice and teach yoga at College Park Yoga in Orlando, Florida.

There’s one more calling directing my life, and that is my interest in Buddhism and evolutionary spirituality.  Everything I teach is imbued with understandings about mind, life, and spirit I’ve learned from these two areas of study.  For the past four years I’ve brought these three callings together through workshops and courses in Yoga, Writing, and Meditation, showing writers how cultivating awareness of breath and body can open passageways to imaginative and heart-felt stories told with a clear, authentic voice.  It’s just about the most fun I’ve ever had.

A few facts about me:

• I have an MA in English and a PhD in Rhetoric and Composition.
• I have taught literature and writing for 42 years and created over twenty different courses.
• I have written three books of essays and edited a collection of essays.
• I am a certified yoga teacher.
• I practice yoga every day.
• When things get tough, I breathe.
• I have a dog named Dash.

My current favorite quotation:

When we stop being a seeker and become a finder, we no longer have any doubt about who we really are and why we are here on Earth.  In our own direct awakening to Spirit’s true face, existential doubt dies a sudden and irrevocable death, liberating an infectious confidence that is rooted deep in our souls. —Andrew Cohen

My mantra:  Drop your mind.  Find your breath.  Everything changes.

The drawings you see on this site are original Zentangles by Lezlie.  Zentangling is a form of doodling that builds designs by repeating small patterns in defined spaces of the “tangle.” 

Click here for more information on the practice.